The problem of ice or frost building up on airplane wing surfaces has been a concern for the aviation industry for decades. Wing surfaces are known to frost-up even in good, albeit humid, weather conditions. One source of this phenomenon is known to occur when moisture laden air comes into contact with cold wing skin areas that are over, and in direct contact with, very cold jet fuel in the engine fuel tank reservoirs within the aircraft wings. Such frosting can occur each time an aircraft lands as long as such very cold jet fuel remains in contact with wing skin areas.
The physics behind the frosting phenomenon is well known. After a certain length of flight time at cruising altitudes, wing tank fuel temperature can reach −40 degrees F. When the wing fuel reaches such low temperatures it is commonly referred to as “cold soaked”. For reasons of aerodynamic stability, relatively warm “belly” fuel on an aircraft is typically burned first. This often leaves the “cold soaked” fuel undisturbed in the wings during short duration flights. This “cold soaked” fuel, when remaining in contact with the wing surface, can result in non-environmental frosting upon landing. This is particularly problematic, if a particular airline route or schedule of flights should involve a number of short hops to pick up addition passengers or cargo. Often these stops are required to be of short duration for economic reasons. The non-environmental frosting can prevent an aircraft from maintaining a quick turnabout on these short hops and may cut into the benefits or gains that may otherwise be realized.
The desire for a quick turnabout from landing to takeoff can conflict with the necessities of dealing with such non-environmental frosting occurring after landing. Although an airline may allot only fifteen or twenty minutes for a given stop, a heavy coat of frost and ice may rapidly form on the top surface of the wings after only five or ten minutes on the ground. FAA regulations may then require the captain of the airplane to either wait for ambient airport weather conditions to eliminate the frost and ice formations or actively have the wings de-iced. Each of these solutions requires a penalty of time and money to implement. Many de-icing procedures can carry with them environmental concerns as well. Therefore, current approaches towards the removal of non-environmental icing often are not compatible with the airline industries goals involving scheduling, cost savings, and time management.
Therefore, it would be highly beneficial to have a pro-active method of preventing/inhibiting the formation of non-environmental frost/ice on airplane wings such that time consuming and costly de-icing procedures would not be required. It would be additionally beneficial if such a method and apparatus was implementable on existing aircraft such that the benefits of such technology would be quickly appreciated by the airline industry. Finally, it would be desirable for such a system to be produced, installed, and maintained with relatively low costs such that the impact of implementing such technology into existing airline fleets would be minimized.